Command Line SFTP Client: Purposes and Capabilities

Command line SFTP client is a console client utility allowing transferring files via SFTP protocol. Commonly used in Unix-like systems such as different distros of Linux, *BSD OSes, Solaris, and Mac OS X, it can be used under Windows as well.

The main advantage of command line SFTP client is an ability to use it without disturbing user(s) with a graphical interface (GUI) for performing some actual operations through SFTP. It allows to build command line SFTP client operations into different scripts or software utilities.

Command line SFTP client allows an interactive session as well. User enters commands from console, while SFTP client prompts and informs user about required or performed operations.

SFTP Command-Line Client Trivia

The basic syntax of SFTP online client is quite simple:sftp [commands]

But the list of commands available is a completely different matter. Just to mention, command line SFTP client can use its own script language, performing SFTP session tasks in a batch mode:sftp –b script_file

For daily use, these are many SFTP clients equipped with graphical user interface (GUI). But for system administrators or for automation software, command line SFTP client can be the most useful option altogether.

SFTP Backup Solution

To compare SFTP command-line client with Handy Backup in terms of backup job, see an article about SFTP data management best practices: Backup to SFTP